Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Abuse of Jewish Prisoners

Three
years ago, I began working on a book that detailed the plight of Jewish
prisoners in American jails.This week,
the book is being published through a French company, revealing horrific conditions
that most Americans cannot even imagine.

The
book grew out of a chance meeting with Sid Kleiner, a resident of Naples,
Florida, and a long-time advocate for the prisoners.We met on a cruise ship.I thought an English couple we had met previously
were waving hello to my wife and me.Actually, they were greeting Sid and his wife, Trudy.After the English couple left, Sid started
telling us about his efforts to help Jewish inmates.

Friedman

He
is one of a handful of advocates who battle daily to improve the lot of Jewish
inmates. Another, Gary Friedman, has testified before Congress on hearings that touched on this issue. They are swamped by the number
of Christian ministries as well as by outside apathy and, in many cases, hostility.

My
wife volunteered me to write a book to help Sid in his crusade.In turn, Sid opened his files to let me read
the letters desperate prisoners wrote him.I had no idea of the depth of the problem.

Few
people do.

For
one thing, there aren’t a lot of Jews in jail.Statistics are hard to find and notoriously inaccurate since inmates
claim religious affiliations for various reasons.Still, only about 1 percent of all prisoners
are Jewish.That is in line with the
percent of Jews in the American population, about 1.7 percent.

As
a result, Jews in prison are vastly outnumbered by Christians, Muslims and other
religious groups.They are also targeted
by Christian chaplains in a relentless effort to convert them.

Neo-Nazi inmate

In
addition, they face extremely hostile prison gangs, such as Aryan Nation, which
attack them on the basis of religious affiliation.They are also subjected to abuse by prison
guards and administrators.

To
compound the problem, they get little support from the Jewish community.Most Jews would rather pretend that their
co-religionists don’t commit the kinds of crimes that lead to lengthy prison
terms.However, no religion can prevent anyone from
committing a felony.In the past, Jews have
served as Mafia hitmen as well as murderous gang leaders, although they are
more associated with white-collar crimes, such as embezzlement, drugs and scams.

Kosher food

In
prison, Jews have no escape and no refuge.They have been beaten, raped and murdered simply because of their
religion.They are particularly
distinctive if they request kosher food, which has to be prepared outside the
prison and delivered.In fact, as I
found in my research, one neo-Nazi group decided its members started to identify
its members as Jewish to obtain what the organization felt was better
food.

One
of the leaders finally decided that was being too hypocritical and dropped the
request.

The
situation is slightly better under Barack Obama than under George W. Bush, who
pushed faith-based ministries.Bush is
convinced that religion somehow is a panacea and would convince inmates to
reform.Naturally, he was sure
Christianity was the only route for inmates.His administration funded faith-based programs that subjected Jewish
inmates to increased pressure and abuse.

Since
such programs have been shown to be complete failures, they have largely
vanished once Bush left office.

Nevertheless,
Jewish prisoners still face widespread abuse.The men and women in jail aren’t there because of a miscarriage of
justice or because of their religious affiliation.However, they don’t expect to be maltreated
because of their religion.

I
don’t know if the book will have any effect.I doubt it.I do know that it is
an issue that has been ignored.

I
hope you’ll get a copy of the book.It’s called Passover in Prison and should be
available via Amazon and other sites shortly.The proceeds are going to Kleiner’s nonprofit.He and his wife have funded their outreach
for years, buying religious articles and waging nonstop writing campaigns with
prison administrators to improve the living condition of Jews behind bars.

Kleiner
is now in his 80s.He’s hoping the book
will help carry on the effort when he is no longer able to.

At
least, now, no one can say the problem is hidden anymore.

Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history.He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols;and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion.His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.He can also be followed on Twitter.

You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

About Me

During his career, Bill has been a newspaper reporter, magazine writer/editor, advertising copywriter and writer/editor of NASCAR programs, among other jobs. He has won three international awards for stories and programs while working for International Speedway Corp. and was named 2000 Florida Feature Writer of the Year.
He has published four books to date and his writing has appeared in hundreds of local, regional, state and national publications.